SEA-NL, the Seaward Enterprises Association of Newfoundland and Labrador is condemning DFO policy that it says allowed for the dumping of hundreds of thousands of pounds of herring last week.

Interim Executive Director, Ryan Cleary says herring harvesters tell him that hundreds of thousands of pounds of fish were dumped last week alone due to policy that sets the small fish tolerance at 20 per cent.

The minimum size of herring in Newfoundland and Labrador is 9.75 inches, or 24.74 cm.

Cleary says when a seiner catches herring, samples are taken to measure for small-fish tolerance, and if more than 20 per cent is found to be under the minimum size, then the fish must be released.

The minimum set in the Martitimes is 18 cm, with a 25 per cent small-fish tolerance according to Cleary. He says DFO recently changed the small-fish tolerance in one area of the province to 30 per cent from 20 pecernt for the over 65 purse-seine fleet in the Gulf.

Cleary calls the policy backward, and says it must end “immediately.”

He says the dumping of fish, in today’s day and age where everyone is so environmentally conscious, is “ridiculous” and must be revisited by DFO.